Arena of Blood
by AnkouRavien
Summary: Some things cannot be saved. Just accept it and move on


How fun was an adventure?

Let's say it was an amazing experience, especially when you were doing it with friends that you met along the way. You passed through everything together; happiness, sadness, confusion, panic, and more. But have you ever ask yourself...

_"Am I able to protect them?"_

Five people were sitting in circle, trying to convince one person that protecting everyone is not possible.

"There are things that you can't protect, even if you sacrifice everything for it," Add stated with monotone voice and looked at his team with blank stare. As a person who tried to save his mother by manipulating time and space, lost his human body and failed, he already lost hope in everything. In fact, he didn't even know why he even bother to continue his life with the El Gang.

"I know, but a possibility exists, even if it closes to zero," Eve the Queen of Nasods replied with no emotion on her face. She hadn't experience anything like Add, but she sacrificed the emotion core for power. As a Nasod, she feared she would lose her feelings toward her friends. She was afraid to not able to feel anything with them anymore, but she wanted more power. She didn't want anyone to die, especially after she lost her fellow Nasods.

Elesis laughed maniacally at the discussion. "You'll realize you need to protect people when you lost them, so it doesn't matter!" she shouted before she narrowed her eyes and grinned. "But you won't lose anyone if you kill them first."

Raven sighed and folded his arms. "I'm not saying that's wrong, but I'd rather put myself in danger when something came than killing literally everything you see."

"Then I'll kill them myself!" Elesis laughed even louder. Everyone knew she lost her mind, but they still considered her as a friend, even though they weren't sure Elesis felt the same thing.

"Chung, you see how it is now? You can't protect everything, even if you pushed yourself," Add stared at the blonde boy in front of him.

Chung tilted his head. "But I worked hard for this. I should be able to, right?"

Eve sighed and shook her head. "The fact that we lost something still remains. Do we look sane to you?"

Eve lost her emotions-she looked completely dead like a real robot. Add was in despair, he didn't even care about anything anymore. Raven attached a new core inside his body so he can get stronger power, even though he refused the Nasod arm at first. Elesis... no matter how people look at her, she'll be labeled insane already.

Chung sighed and rested his head on his cannon. "I think I'm losing my mind..."

"There are things you can't protect. Remember that," Raven said.

An elf walked toward them and joined the circle. "You guys look down. What's wrong?"

Raven pointed Elesis with his thumb. "Does she look down to you?"

Rena gave a forced laugh. "Except her, I guess. Are you guys ready? Ara and Rose scouted the place for a bit. She has strategy in mind!"

They stood up and approached Ara and Rose near a tower where they killed four-headed dragon. Ara looked at everyone and smiled. "Alright, listen up. I've seen thorns inside that appeared on a certain moment, so be on guard and destroy them before another thorn came out! We tested Rose's robots inside. There was something ahead that will aim and shoot laser after two seconds or so. When you see them aimed you, just run to a place where they won't hit the rest of us!"

Rena shook her head with worried look. "I don't like this one bit. Why don't we bring everyone for this?"

"It's more dangerous with many people around, Rena," Rose replied.

* * *

They went inside the tower. Just like Ara said, thorns were appearing out of nowhere. Unexpectedly, the thorns appeared more than Ara expected. They knew destroying them one by one wasn't a good idea.

Elesis laughed and destroyed the thorns in front of her with a smile on her face. "Just go! I'll play with them!"

Chung startled. "We can just go together!"

Elesis grinned. "Are you nuts? This thing absorbs our power. If we all go together, we won't even scratch the enemy!"

"Either we're all stuck here or move forward! I'll stay with Elesis!" Rena shot her arrow to create a path. Everyone ran through the path except one person. Rena stomped her foot and yelled at him, "Chung, don't stay here!"

Chung removed his mask and faced the two. "Will you be fine?"

Elesis smirked at him. "Kill them all for me, okay?"

Chung didn't say a thing and followed the others through the cleared path before thorns appeared and separated them. "Elesis, why did you say that?" Rena frowned.

"You knew, no?" Elesis cackled.

* * *

Chung left the two and approached the others who were attacking a huge eyeball. There were small eyeballs around it. "Chung, where were you?! Hurry up and help us!" Ara yelled at him.

"This won't work," Add said and backed away from them. "Chung, help me kill the small eyes."

Chung was confused, but he followed Add and killed the small eyes. Add told them the small eyes supported the huge eyeball, but they won't listen to him and followed Ara's command.

Except Chung because Add dragged him to his order. "This thing is annoying. Maybe they would help us later," Chung commented and kept shooting the small eye.

The huge eyeball stared at Add's back. The others moved to the back of the eyeball's sight. Chung realized something wasn't right with the eyeball and pushed Add before it shot a red beam.

Add got up and narrowed his eyes at injured Chung. Instead of feeling relief, he was really upset. "What were you thinking? I can manipulate time and survive that easily!"

Chung smiled slight. "Sorry, I can't just watch."

"Guys, just attack this!" Raven shouted at the two.

Add sighed and lent his hand. "Looks like we have no choice."

They followed the others and attacked the huge eyeball, but it was meaningless. It won't die, even when they did their best. Eve analyzed Chung's condition. "Chung, you don't look fine. We need to treat your injuries. Do you need time to rest?" she asked.

"Sorry, but I can't rest now. They don't even give us time," Chung replied.

"You need time? I can do that," Add turned around from them.

Eve faced Add with no emotion. "Add, don't-"

Everything around them stopped and Add was nowhere to be seen. Eve sighed and tended to Chung's injuries. "What's happening?" Rose asked in confusion and looked at her surroundings.

"Add stopped the time for us," Ara smiled and sat on the ground. "I guess we need a bit of rest, after all. Let's kill the small eyes first this time."

"I shouldn't have did that," Chung murmured. "He wouldn't need to stop time if I wasn't injured."

Eve shook her head. "No, he lied to you. He can't survive that. Add can't say thank you, that's all."

After a few seconds, everything moved again. Add was still nowhere to be seen, but they didn't have time to discuss it and killed the small eyes. Driven by curiosity, Rose approached Eve and helped her destroy the small eye. "What happened to Add?"

"Pretty sure the eye killed him," Eve answered with blank stare. If she didn't break her emotion core, she would show a mixed feelings between happiness and sadness. The one who tried to take her core was gone should make her happy, but she wasn't.

They managed to destroy the huge eyeball, but that wasn't their last fight. The eye changed its shape. The eyeball had a shell that shot spikes and thorns to protect itself. The fact that they can't get close to it often was already tiring.

"I can fly and distract it alone if you all need rest," Eve said to her friends. She realized human didn't have unlimited energy like her. She knew a short time Add gave to them wasn't enough to fight the eyeball twice.

"It's okay, we can do it!" Ara shouted as she dashed toward the eyeball. Rose followed her and attacked it.

Eve stared at Chung. "You should rest. Your injury will get worse."

Chung shook his head. "I can't-"

Suddenly a prison appeared around Eve and Raven. They're both trapped inside and the eyeball was staring at Eve. Without thinking, Chung got closer to Eve and tried to free her, but he wasn't strong enough in his current condition.

"Chung, leave them!" Rose shouted.

The eyeball was still staring at Eve; it will shoot at any moment. If he can't free Eve, she will get shot to death. Moreover, he didn't know what the prison will do to Raven.

Chung's eyes widened in surprise when he saw Eve's smile-and probably-her last smile. "Chung, go."

Chung ran away from it and followed Ara and Rose. The eyeball shot laser beam and killed Eve in an instant, along with the prison slowly crushing Raven before it broke by its own.

They kept attacking the eye until the shell cracked. Ara lunged her spear and stabbed the eye to kill it. All the thorns and spikes were gone. "What a mess," Ara commented with a sigh.

Chung walked toward Raven. "Please tell me you're alive."

Raven sighed and opened his eyes. "I am. The core inside my body saved me."

They retreated from the tower. Chung sat in front of the tower and looked at the red sky. "I could save Eve. I'm not strong enough," he muttered to himself.

Raven stood beside him. "We could save her if Ara and Rose didn't abandon her."

Chung hugged his knees. "What are we supposed to say to Elsword?"

Before they went out from the tower, Chung saw Elesis and Rena died in a horrible way. He didn't even want to describe what he saw.

"Chung, I told you..." Raven faced Chung.

"...There are things you can't save."

* * *

_OKAY SO normal raid was fun until I literally can't save my caged teammates and got a command "leave them"_

_AND ONE OF THEM LOST THEIR LAST RESU AAAAAAAA_

_Someday I'll get a +10 or more to save you people waaaaaaaah __*cries internally*_


End file.
